UCC-STA Vs. COAL INDIA LIMITED AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL, for short) floated a tender, inviting bids for the removal of overburden, re-handling and extraction of coal over 11 years and two years of backfilling at Gaurangdih-Begunia in the Salanpur area. The writ petitioner appellant responded to the e-tender notice dated August 22, 2017 and the grievance of the writ petitioner joint venture in this appeal is that it has been wrongfully disqualified despite being identified as the L-1 bidder at the reverse auction that took place in October, 2017 after the bids were opened about a fortnight earlier.

(2.) The writ petition was dismissed at the ad interim stage, inter alia, on the ground that the matters in issue were deliberated upon and discussed at meetings of the tender committee and the decision to disqualify the appellant was pursuant to an opinion appropriately obtained from a law officer of the Union. The single bench found no fault with the decision-making process and observed that no mala fides could be attributed to the action.

(3.) It must be noticed at the outset that the challenge in the writ petition is founded on the legal principle of malice in law and no case of malice in fact has been made out. Since the writ petition stood dismissed at the receiving stage, upon the present appeal being filed, directions were issued for affidavits to be filed. The matter was assigned to this Bench after the final hearing in the appeal had commenced. Thus, at the appellate stage the scope of the hearing was larger than the exercise undertaken by the single bench.